The embodiments described in the following section are not necessarily embodiments that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the embodiments described herein qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion.
Computer systems have a plethora of configurations, and the ability to print within a networked computing environment has become indispensable to the modern business. Electronic devices such as desktop computers, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and smart phones are tools which enable the user to access and create electronic content. It is sometimes useful to turn the information into a printed tangible form.
Unfortunately existing providers of both printers and printing services have tended to be limited in their offerings, often allowing only certain applications and file types to print in specific, limited configurations. Moreover, adaptability to some tablets, PDAs, smart phones, and other mobile devices has been previously unavailable without the advantages and features of embodiments of the present invention.
Conventional printers, and associated printing techniques, typically involve the installation of a print driver on an operating system or platform of an associated computer. However, protocols such as AirPrint by Apple Inc. have been introduced which enable printing without the need for an independent printer driver. The protocol utilizes a service advertisement methodology which enables services (such as printing to a printer) to be presented to users in an unrestricted, global manner. Hence printers may be shared within local area networks (LANs) and in some cases other networked architectures. While this is advantageous in some environments, in other environments service visibility becomes too widely cast. For example, for AirPrint enabled printers once the printer is made available to the network all users can discover and use the printer. Hence, given the above limitations of current AirPrint (and similar) protocols, there is a need for improved service discovery in existing networked environments.